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Warrior builds
This page lists the standard builds for warriors, many of which have several vaiants (personalized builds), but the idea is the same. Get the same key talents and everything else is left to be personalized with the player's style. If you are having trouble deciding, look to other 70 warriors for spec advice or look up a well know warrior on the WoW armory to see what works best. Note: Do not post personalized builds unless they are dramatically different than an existing or popular build. Builds by purpose The most popular warrior tree is Protection, which is the tanking tree. Warriors putting a lot of points there will be very hard to kill, but nearly unable to deal damage. At 31 points, the Arms tree offers Mortal Strike, which is the central talent for many PvP builds (with a 2H weapon). Fury builds put an emphasis on dualwield, and are best suited for high sustained DPS, usually in a group/raid PvE environment. Popular Level 70 Builds The Armory makes it possible to ascertain the most popular builds for level 70 warriors. The following data is provided by Kurushiro of The Build Mine and Okoloth of Armory Musings and is up to date as of the July 27, 2007. At level 70, 46 per cent of warriors specialize primarily in Protection, 39 per cent specialize in Arms, and 15 percent specialize in Fury. Arms The combination of Mortal Strike and Flurry using a slow two-handed weapon is most popular. In effect, 31/30/0 or a variation thereof is the second most popular warrior build overall. The template contains all the important talents, some customisation may take place (like moving the points from Improved Execute, Piercing Howl and Weapon Mastery elsewhere in the tree). Flurry is arguably the best talent for a PvP build. If players want to balance the build between high sustained damage (for group/raid environments) and burst damage (PvP), it's possible to move some (or even all) points from Flurry away to Second Wind or Blood Frenzy. Such trades should be considered really well. Two other popular PvP arms builds are 41/20/0 which includes some of the new high tier Arms talents brought in by the Burning Crusade expansion, and 36/25/0 which uses Slam as one of its key talents. The latter build is a good PvP/PvE tradeoff. It acheives high DPS with Slam, best using a very slow two-handed weapon. Proper usage of the Slam Rotation takes some learning effort, however. One point of discussion in the Arms tree is which weapon specialization to take. In theory there shouldn't be much of a differentc. Mace Specialization used to be the talent of choice for PvP, in PvE it was rather pointless since bosses are often immune to stun. Unfortunately, stun effects have been recently nerfed in PvP too, which leads many to believe that Mace Specialization is currently the weakest of the three. Notes on Arms Builds If you want to go arms for PvE (warning, do not do this if you don't have an attack time bar and good timing), I like this build. Minor changes, such as improved demo shout for unbridled wrath (though I'd recommend that at least one warrior in the raid have at least 2/5 imp demo), weapon mastery for improved slam, improved intercept for improved disciplines, or sword spec for axe spec, are all fine. For PvP, you have to choose whether you want a build with flurry or not - if you want flurry, a build like this is what you should be going for. As before minor changes are fine - iron will to whatever else in the first two tiers, booming voice to unbridled wrath or imp demo, blood craze to commanding presence, mace spec to sword spec (though I should note that I think maces are generally the best PvP weapons) - don't even consider axes unless you're an orc. If you do want tactical mastery - giving up damage for extra flexibility in use of abilities outside of berserker stance - the build I would suggest is here. Again, minor changes are fine - the ones mentioned before and 1 from 2h spec/1 from imp hamstring to imp execute. On a side note - paladins are not a melee class, you won't be doing arena with a team of all melee classes, and you aren't less likely to gain enrage with higher resilience, endless rage is definitely worse than flurry, don't even consider a PvE arms build without flurry and improved slam, it's impossible to get endless rage and improved slam at the same time, and warriors definitely do get attacked (or zerged as it was said above) in arena often. Fury The most popular Fury build is 17/44/0. It's focused on high sustained DPS. This build is configured for PvE, by moving a few points from Improved Whirlwind and Improved Execute to Piercing Howl, Improved Berserker Rage and/or Improved Overpower it becomes quite PvP friendly (e.g. 19/42/0). Fury builds like these are sometimes dubbed "RiPs" or "rippers," derived from the phrase "rogues in plate," since their damage-dealing potential is close to rogues though their survivability is higher. Protection Close to 7% of all level 70 warriors use variants of a 8/5/48 template for a Protection build, making it the most popular point distribution of all. The basic pattern is to distribute 54 points like this. Warriors built on this template are specialized for group PvE and are versatile tanks, but are less than optimal for solo PvE or PvP. The remaining seven points are most frequently spent elsewhere in the Protection tree. One may also transfer points out from Anticipation once their defense from gear reaches 490, therefore preventing being crit by bosses. The most popular variations take Improved Defensive Stance and Improved Shield Wall. Warriors tanking five- or 10-man instances often take Improved Revenge and Improved Shield Bash, but warriors tanking 25-man instances often find that the mobs are immune to these talents and choose accordingly. Many warriors also choose not to take Improved Thunder Clap (5/5/51) or Cruelty (8/0/53), and instead use the freed talent points for Protection talents. Both of these talents are useful in many contexts, however, and one should always consider whether the extra Protection talents are worth their loss. A final popular variation is to also take Improved Heroic Strike or Anger Management, both found in the Arms tree. This variant gives warriors more opportunities to add a layer of Heroic Strikes to their threat-ability rotation, thus maximizing threat per second. Other Level 70 Builds Arms Arena Only Build 45/5/11 With the emergence of the patch 2.3, a new pvp build have been noticed to be far superior in arenas. This build (45-5-11) gives far superior durability and higher burst damage than other builds due to warriors all being left being kited or cc’ed. Tactical Mastery allows warriors to stance dance when encountering that rogue/druid/hunter that is waiting to be overpowered and switch back to Berserker Stance to intercept another target. The choice of weapon mastery is totally up to the warrior, it is more beneficial for warriors to go Mace Spec if they have Deep Thunder or Stormherald as of the recent nerf to Mace Spec stun proccing 2-3% less. Sword Spec warriors have more burst damage, as most warriors tend to spam hamstring, they benefit more from the extra swing that can proc from hamstring spam. Improved Hamstring lets warriors stop runners dead on their tracks, literally. Toughness give an extra 10% armor gives allows warriors to take more physical damage and Last Stand gives warriors the flexibility of awaiting that critical moment for a big heal to hit after getting Presence of Mind/Pyroblast or avoid executes and Hammer of Wrath. The downside of this build is that it is not as practical in Battlegrounds due to the long cool down of Last Stand and Death Wish. Other significant losses are improved shouts (Commanding Presence), enrage and in some cases flurry. The loss of enrage if not as significant due to resilience, Death Wish no longer stacks with enrage and Warriors are seldom zerged in arena fights, especially in 5v5. However the benefit gained from Endless Rage outweighs the loss of flurry to generate enough rage to use improved Mortal Strike every 5 seconds. MS with Tankage Build 35/0/26 This spec is based on being able to tank effectively, and PvP and DPS even more effectively. (Tanking uses only heroic strike, sunder is for when your rage is high. That's right, I turned tanking on it's head.) (**While a nice idea, tanking without using Sunder Armor is NOT recommended by any credible source of information on tanking as a warrior). PvP: Other than Improved Heroic Strike and Deflection, the entire arms part is for PvP. In the prot tree, Improved Bloodrage, Last Stand, and most of all Concussion Blow are all good for pvp. Tanking: Improved Heroic Strike, Deflection, Sword Specialization, and the prot talents all help. Moveable talents: Heroic Strike can moved to Improved Thunder Clap if you think you'll actually need it. The specialization can be moved to whichever specialization you'd like. And if you only think you'll tank non-heroic 5 mans, you can move Anticipation to either Improved Mortal Strike or Cruelty. (Built by Alphasfury, posted by SA3K) Dual Wielding with MS (31/30/0) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LAGhdhbox0zZVV0Gxx0VThe idea behind this build is that using two one handed swords with the almost required talents of flurry and Enrage, coupled with the additional attack chance of the Sword Specialization talent in Arms, you will be capable of doing 4 hits instead of one, should you strike lucky. It is most effective, in theory, if both your swords can proc an additional attack. Here's how it would go, in the best scenario: 1-First sword attacks, weapon's proc effect triggers. 2-That effect procs the additional attack via your talent. 3-Same thing, except your offhand weapon does it. So instead of 2 attacks, you get 6! Fury Example Leveling Spec This leveling spec, (13/43/5), is based on doing damage fast and hard, without being too reliant on bandages and food. With Blood Craze and Blood Thirst it is possible to keep a warrior's life high enough that one can pull many times in a row without needing to rest, thereby speeding up the leveling process. This build works especially nicely with the Mark of Conquest, since its heal proc rate is actually quite high. The optimal means of using this build is through the following procedure: (1) Charge a mob, (2) use Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap, then (3) switch to Berserker Stance. If presented with the opportunity to use Rampage and Overpower, then do so. If it becomes necessary to heal, use an Intimidating Shout and bandage, then run a short distance from the mob and use Intercept. If this fails attempt to use Piercing Howl. Fury with a Weapon Spec This build (26/35/0) is specifically designed for using an one-handed axe in the main hand and off-hand. It is a useful build for killing multiple mobs without losing health too quickly. Indeed, if properly executed this build permits warriors to easily handle at least three non-elite mobs on your own without using potions! This build also provides a substantial crit chance to keep Flurry active at almost all times. The optimal means of using this build is through the following procedure: (1) Charge a mob. With Improved Charge one will have the necessary rage to (2) use Improved Thunder Clap and to (3) use Improved Demoralizing Shout. Once this is done (4) spam with Heroic Strikes and Bloodthirst, or (5) Sweeping Strikes if facing multiple enemies. Fury/Protection 5/41/15 This 5/41/15 is an alternative hybrid build that focuses primarily on the Fury tree to provide strong offensive abilities while at the same time points invested in Protection tree allow better damage mitigation and increased threat in tanking role. This build also generates threat better than Arms/Protection build because of increased damage due to Flurry and Enrage proc effects. Rage generation is also one more strong side of this build because it grants access to both Unbridled Wrath and Shield Specialization. Protection Tree Basic Tanking Build 5/5/45 This build will work for any Warrior looking to tank endgame 5man instances through heroics through Karazhan and beyond. There are 6 points left unspent at level 70, they are best spent on some combination of Improved Heroic Strike, Improved Demoralizing Shout, Improved Thunder Clap, or Improved Shield Bash depending on personal preference. (I used this 11/5/45 build for a long time, but there are a lot of other possible combinations that will work just as well.) It is also possible to spend them on solo PvE or PvP abilities, but this is not recommended for committed tanks. Key talents include Deflection in the Arms tree for increased mitigation and threat generation, Cruelty in the Fury tree for increased threat generation, and in the Protection tree: Shield Specialization and Improved Shield Block for increased mitigation and Rage generation, Defiance and Shield Slam for increased threat generation, Focused Rage for Rage efficiency, and Devastate to replace what pre-endgame is the bread-and-butter Warrior tanking ability (Sunder Armor) and is also very useful in solo PvE. Some do not choose to take Improved Revenge, however if this is the case at least one point will need to be moved into Improved Bloodrage, Tactical Mastery, (especially popular for novice tanks) Improved Taunt, Improved Shield Bash, or (highly discouraged for pre-raiding tanks) Improved Shield Wall. Multiple Mob Tanking Build This build (8/12/41) is made for main tanking with specific emphasis on the "weak spot" of warrior tanks: namely, multiple-mob tanking. To better take and keep the aggro of multiple mobs this build sports Improved Thunder Clap and Improved Cleave, while also using Unbridled Wrath in order to obtain rage early into a fight. Stun moves, such as Improved Revenge and Concussion Blow, also help when trying to keep multiple mobs under control. Hybrid Hybrid Protection Build 19/11/31 This build, (19/11/31), mixes some damage dealing abilities with the most important Protection talents, namely Shield Slam, which is one of the most important aggro-generating and damage-dealing abilities. This build is not best used by main tanks, but it will serve well enough as tank in most 5-man instances or for off-tanking while still dealing decent DPS. Casual Fury/Tank 13/34/14 This hybrid build This hybrid build is for those who like to solo grind, instance DPS when they can, and tank when needed. There's a lot of wiggle room to mix and match your favorite lower tier talents, but the deep tree core choices are Anger Management/Imp Overpower, Bloodthirst/Precision, and Defiance/Last Stand. Impale Tank Build 19/5/37 This is a great OT spec for guys that will be doing more than just tanking. It will put out DPS within 10% or less that of Dual Wield Fury with similar gear. With the Shaman Windfury Totem nerf, this build will probably come out very high on DPS. The real strength of this build is rage efficiency and spammable Heroic Strikes. You also have to figure a flat 10% damage boost across the board with 1h spec. Battle stance is the only stance used when soloing, swapping out between dual wield and shield depending on the mob. When in groups and not tanking, stay in Battle Stance if you want the benefit of Improved Overpowers (more likely to happen when dual wielding) or go Beserker for the crit boost. Deathwish/Shield Slam This build (21/5/35) came up with moving deathwish to arms and the new Zul'Aman drops with lots of block value in 2.3, its simply an advancement to the impale tank build which allows for you to hit shield slams as hard (if not harder) than a typical Bloodthirst or Mortal strike (some crit over 3000 on average if you get you block value over 800), getting the Gnomeregan Autoblocker from heroic badges is highly recomended. Deathwish is also useful as a tank since it can be used in defensive stance. Points can be moved in arms and prot to make it more pve friendly as well. The Semi-Tough (0/30/31) The purpose of this build is to enable a warrior to tank when needed, while maintaining enough damage to solo and quest without frustration. It is designed for the warrior who quests regularly and tanks regularly, but who doesn't want to spend a great deal on respecs—like the tank who seeks to buy an epic flying mount, or grind Netherwing reputation. It therefore focuses on white damage, seeking to milk as much out the stackable One-Handed Weapon Specialization and Dual Wield Specialization, while giving the warrior access to both full Flurry and Shield Slam. It is useful chiefly to warriors who use one handed weapon, and is meant to allow for easy transition between dual wielding and main hand plus shield. It is a very un-fiddly, un-bursty build: it lacks Death Wish and Rampage, and the only self-buff the warrior needs to maintain is Battle Shout. Level 60 builds * Warrior Builds pre-TBC External links Official Website's Warrior Page Official Website's Warrior Forum Fortifications: A Warrior Reference Guide Shows various builds focused more on the Protection tree. Category:Guides Category:Warriors Category:Talents Category:Warrior Talents